Poland: The future of vaping gets darker on one of the biggest market

The future of vaping becomes darker in Poland. The transposition of the TPD into national tobacco regulation has been stricter than the regular EU's recommendations. This strictness may impact one of the biggest vaping market in Europe.

Ban on cross-border and online sales

According to Mirolsaw Dworniczak, the transposition of the EU TPD was unavoidable. But what was avoidable are the constraints that the Minister of Health, Konstanty Radziwill, set up compared to the majority of other EU member states. The main protagonist has never been in favor of vaping, pretending that its harmfulness equals that of other tobacco products.

Despite the many efforts of vaping associations to communicate with Polish authorities, they never responded to sollicitations. The additional measures acted by the ministry have been the ban on cross-border and online sales of e-cigarettes.

The law was voted on July 8, 2016 and is pending Senate’s approval and official signature by the President. A decree should be published in the coming weeks.

More constraining on the vaping side than for smoking tobacco

Ironically, Polish citizens will get a better access to conventional smoking tobacco that may be purchased anywhere in the country. In contrast, many people living in small towns of the country side won’t get access to e-cigarettes because of the ban on online sales. Online stores will have to close, leaving many people unemployed.